Annette's hand slipped free of Ronnie's in an instant.

She lifted her head, looking up at the man beside her, demanding an answer.

"Ronnie, you've been married?"

Ronnie shook his head, over and over.

"How could I be? You'd believe anything she says."

"I forgot to tell you—this is my sister. She came by the gym to find me. She loves these dumb little jokes."

Annette seemed to breathe again, and slid her arm back through Ronnie's.

In the end, Ronnie made up some excuse and brought me home.

The moment we were through the door, he blocked my way.

"Annie doesn't know anything. Don't hurt her."

I gave a bitter laugh, and the tears fell anyway, no matter how I fought them.

"You wouldn't have a child with me because of her?"

Ronnie didn't answer, as if there were something he couldn't bring himself to say.

But what about everything I'd swallowed? Did that count for nothing?

I kept going.

"You don't want me to hurt her? Then I'll make sure she knows—she's the one who wormed her way into someone else's marriage, the other woman who'll never be anything more than that."

Slap.

A sharp crack landed on my face.

The sting in my cheek came with Ronnie's roar, and the rest of my words went back down my throat.

"Rosalind, that's enough!"

"I'll explain all of this to you later, but please, can you not hurt Annie? She doesn't know anything. She's a victim too. I'm the one who wronged her, keeping the truth from her from the start."

"Once she's had the baby, I'll tell her everything."

And me? Didn't I need an explanation too?

That whole year of being lied to—what did that make me?

Slowly I sank down and leaned against the wall.

The next day, Ronnie acted like nothing had happened.

He passed along a message Annette had sent him.

"Company camping retreat. Annie wants you to come."

"Don't blow it. I'm begging you."

I looked at the flight departure time pushed to my phone.

Not much longer to endure.

After tomorrow, you're you and I'm me. We won't have to be tangled up in each other anymore.

At the campsite.

The rest of the company staff quietly treated me as Ronnie's sister.

Because of the night before, Annette was a little embarrassed.

She sat down beside me holding a gift she'd prepared for me in advance.

"I'm sorry, Rosalind. I really didn't know you were Ronnie's sister."

"He never told me before."

Not far off, everyone was watching the two of us like it was a show.

All of them seeming to wait, wondering when the real wife would finally blow up, when I'd expose the whole thing on the spot.

Ronnie sat on my other side, nudging me over and over with the tip of his shoe.

I shifted a little to the side.

"You don't know it, but Ronnie's keeping a lot from you. Want me to tell you, one thing at a time?"

The mood froze to zero.

All you could hear was the muffled breathing around us.

Annette didn't catch my meaning. She smiled and said,

"Go on, then. What else has he done that I don't know about? He's always laughing at me. Let me laugh at him for once."

I looked down and turned the soda-tab diamond ring on my ring finger.

"Back in school, he chased a girl for three years. In the end she still wouldn't say yes, so he kept showing up at her place, day after day, shameless about it, until she finally gave in."

Annette's face soured a little, but she kept listening.

"Later he got his wish and married that girl. And in the second year of their marriage, he cheated."

Annette couldn't hold it anymore. The smile at the corner of her mouth slowly faded.

"Where is that girl now?"

I smiled faintly.

"Isn't she right beside you?"

The next second, Annette rose slowly to her feet, her eyes fixed on Ronnie, wounded and furious.

She said nothing, just clutched her belly and ran.

Ronnie looked at me, a resentment in his eyes I couldn't put into words.

"Why did you have to say it at this exact moment? Annie's already sensitive. If something happens to her, I'll never forgive you."

Annette was the one who came after me with all those questions.

I only told her the truth. I did nothing wrong.

Ronnie didn't come back until the next afternoon.

One hour left before my flight.

He looked awful, sinking down onto the couch.

“Rosalind, go apologize to Annie yourself. Just tell her it was a joke, that she shouldn't take it seriously.”

My hands stilled over the clothes I was folding.

“Why should I apologize? What did I do wrong?”

“Or shouldn't you be the one apologizing to me?”

Ronnie rubbed irritably at his hairline, then lifted his head.

“Because Annie once saved my life. Everything I'm doing is just to repay her.”

I zipped the suitcase shut and rose slowly to my feet.

“There are plenty of ways to repay someone. You chose the stupidest one.”

Even as I stood the suitcase upright, Ronnie noticed nothing wrong.

He said that a year ago, when we went to the coast together and he fell into the water, it was Annette who saved him.

Later Annette showed up at the gym, and he decided it was a rare kind of fate.

My grip on the suitcase tightened without meaning to.

A year ago, Ronnie did fall into the water. But the one who saved him wasn't Annette at all. It was me.

After I pulled him out of the sea, I went to flag down the ambulance at the roadside.

But when he opened his eyes, the person he saw was Annette, passing by.

I never explained. He never asked.

He simply took Annette for the woman who had saved his life.

None of it mattered anymore. My phone buzzed again, reminding me to board.

I told Ronnie the same way I always did.

“I booked an afternoon flight.”

He got up and took the suitcase from my hand, the way he always had.

“Getting away for a bit is good. I'll be home waiting for you.”

“I've cleared up the whole thing with Annie. Stop clinging to these petty little things.”

Ronnie talked the whole way there.

Right up until I had to board, he waved at me first.

“Come back soon.”

In my heart, I answered him.

This time, I wasn't coming back.

......

On his way back to the gym, Ronnie was stopped in the road by Annette.

“Rosalind isn't your sister, is she?”

“Ronnie, don't lie to me. Just tell me the truth, okay?”

Ronnie stood where he was, unmoved.

He truly didn't want to hurt the girl in front of him.

But by now, his silence had already said everything.

Annette suddenly stepped back, her voice heavy with loss.

“I'm sorry. I didn't know you were married. The baby, I'll go to the hospital and end it.”

“Rosalind must be hurting so much right now. Go tell her I won't take you away from her.”

Annette wept until it tore at her, and even after being lied to, she didn't scream or make a scene. She chose to step aside.

The more she did that, the more it wrenched at Ronnie.

He caught her wrist as she was about to leave.

“You saved me. I was supposed to repay you.”

Annette wiped her tears, forcing herself to remember, and finally said through her crying,

“The one who saved you that day wasn't me. I only happened to be passing by. The one who saved you was Rosalind!”

Ronnie stood there blankly, and his grip on Annette's hand slowly loosened.

He'd always felt a piece of his memory was missing, and only now did that day in the water come back to him.

After he'd been dragged ashore, there had been a brief moment when he was clear-headed.

He couldn't make out the face, but he remembered a ring on that person's wrist.

Very unusual.

It hit him all at once. That person had never been anyone else. It was Rosalind.

Because only she would wear a ring made from a soda tab on her hand.

Ronnie looked at the time on his phone.

Only ten minutes left before the plane took off.

Rosalind wasn't going on any trip. She was leaving him for good.

“Go after her, hurry!”

Annette couldn't help but urge him on.

Ronnie didn't hesitate a second longer. He hailed a cab and headed straight for the airport.